Price of a Dime

Posted on February 6, 2012, 8:41 am -- Kharmin

On my way in to work today, I was stuck with the local radio stations and their incessant chatter, which was only disturbed by a few songs and a disproportionate amount of sales pitches. Buried in the cacophony of voices was Tommy TuTone’s classic 867-5309/Jenny (the bane of those who actually held that phone number when the song hit the charts). One of the later lines of the song is, “For the price of a dime I can always turn to you” which got me reminiscing about those days of yore when a local phone call from a public phone (booth, no less!) was only a dime.

Then, it was a quarter. Well, 25¢ was a hike, but it made some sense in that you needed only one coin to place a call. Convenient. In that era, a common insult was, “Here’s a quarter; call someone who cares.”

Later, it went to 35¢. Now, I have no idea what a local phone call from a public phone costs. Heck, I don’t even know where a public phone is around here — everyone is using cell phones nowadays.

So, what’s the common insult now? Instead of giving someone a quarter, is it, “Here’s a prepaid, disposable cell phone with 8 megapixel camera and GPS tracking; use it and get the hell away from me.” ?